Facebook Groups: They’re Useful Now

Hey, remember when you were 14 and joined any Facebook group with a witty name that you could find? For literally no reason (none of them ever posted anything…they came up with the name and didn’t really brainstorm past that point)? And then you decided that Facebook groups were useless and deleted them all before future employers could see your teenage mistakes?

Guess what? Facebook groups are useful again. This is not a prank, this is not a drill, please proceed to your nearest fire exit. Bloggers, this one is mainly for you…but I bet anyone could find a group that’s helpful for their industry/niche.

Closed groups are a literal dream. You’re surrounded by only the people who also wanted to be a part of this little community enough to send a request to join. You can post a link to your blog and say “hey can anyone tell me why no one likes my blog” and you will be given constructive criticism on how to improve your layout, branding, menus, etc. It’s like having an on-call expert made up of dozens/hundreds/thousands of your peers. They’re also apt to giving advice on your Instagram layout, logos, if you should brand with your name or a business name, how to gain followers on social media…everything. Honestly, you have no idea what is hidden behind a “request to join” button.

But this is not the extent of the usefulness. Oh no. There is so much more. Let’s come up with a scenario here. Let’s say you want to guest post on someone else’s blog. Guest posting is a great way to show off your brand to an entire new group of people that have already proven that they enjoy reading blogs and the general idea of what you’re writing about (granted that you’ve chosen a blog to guest on that has a similar theme). Just shimmy your way into one of these groups and leave a post mentioning that you’re looking for guest posters or that you’re looking to guest post on a certain topic, and you’ve already got a community with similar needs for their own sites…now you can collaborate. I’m working on a fun post right now because of this exact concept! You could trade a guest post for a guest post, make it beneficial to everyone…so many options.

If all of this fails and no one wants to work with you (maybe your niche doesn’t match with theirs or maybe you seem like you’re only there to benefit from others and not to assist…make sure you don’t do that), you can at least guarantee that someone will click through to your blog to see if you’re a match. Maybe they’ll keep you in mind for the future. SO. MUCH. OPPORTUNITY. I love it. I love the internet and I love Facebook groups and I love how technology has advanced to this point and I’m here to experience this new world.

In order to benefit from these groups, you do need to make sure you’re giving back as much as you’re taking. It’s good to gain knowledge and opportunities for your own blog, but it would suck if you didn’t help others in return…also, there’s a 99% chance everyone will stop helping you once they realize you’re a Facebook Grinch.

Here are a couple of groups I’d recommend to get started!

(Keep in mind that these are super blog/entrepreneur focused…I don’t have recommendations for other niches but I bet you could find a few and test the waters!)

What was the most embarrassing Facebook group you followed back in the day?

Paige is an Internet Person from Toronto, Ontario. When she's not filming and editing videos for YouTube, she's procrastinating on writing the post you just read or coaching young women on how to start their own creative projects. Or coming up with a new scheme. Probably the latter.

You know, I never used to do Facebook groups back in the day, but I recently started for the professional networking! I totally agree- they’re extremely useful. I also started doing Google+ groups, although I haven’t gotten the hang of that yet.

Thanks for the group suggestions! I haven’t used them to the extent I need to since it always seems like I’m running out of time. Maybe this should be my next year’s resolution, lol!

I have literally no idea why I ever joined any before 6 months ago, but they’re incredible for networking! I still haven’t gotten used to Google+ in general…maybe that will have to be my resolution!
(I’d recommend the Blog + Biz BFFs one for you, I think that community would be best suited for you! 🙂 Happy Holidays!! xx)